So here’s some study abroad honesty. Shhhhhh…Don’t tell my profs!

Siobhan and I study for finals together.

I consider myself a good student (evidence of this is that I’m a member of Golden Key Honor Society). But while abroad I am finding it excruciatingly difficult to force myself to sit down and read the assigned primary literature and scientific articles. In fact it is even hard to stay awake in class.

(NOTE: THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE QUALITY OF MY PROFESSORS; THEY ARE FANTASTIC!)

I really love the subject matter but it’s just so difficult to sit through hours of PowerPoint presentations, especially when I am learning the Shannon Biodiversity Index for the third time!

When you study abroad everything is exciting and new. There are new plants and animals, styles of dress and architecture, cultural activities, and places to explore. For example, when I was studying for my finals a foot-and-a-half long iguana decided to stop and chill right behind me and Meredith. Of course we had to admire him instead of study. Or on weekends, I keep meaning to check out potential summer internships but when having to decide between checking out a parade of cowboys, a rodeo, and salsa dancing or sitting by a computer monitor waiting for snail-paced, unreliable internet I can’t help but choose to embrace a new adventure.

For internship applications and housing and all that other paper work, I recommend getting it taken care of before you reach your destination country. I made the poor choice of working 4 part-time jobs during the month of January and now regret the fact that my summer plans aren’t taken care of already. The portion of students that do not have their summer plans decided right now are rather stressed. You don’t want to be thinking about logistics for back at home while you are abroad.

Also, while abroad you need to seriously evalute your academic values. What is more important to you; seeing more of your host country or good grades. (Major props if you can do both – I respect and envy you!) Assuming you are willing to settle for less than As, how low can you go? Are you happy with a 3.0 or below? Is a “C” a disgrace? These are questions I am currently asking myself. You think the answer would be simple but I have a major problem with earning bad grades because my only responsibilities while here are to stay safe, write the blog, and be a good student.

You’ll laugh but the night before midterms I had a cup of coffee to stay up late while catching up on some of the scientific journal articles I hadn’t gotten to. I fell asleep on the top bunk with my laptop on my chest. I was quite upset with myself because I had only red about 2/3 of the required readings. At around midnight I shrieked, sprang off the top bunk, rolled mid-air, and landed perfectly on my feet at which point, I woke up shaking from a horrible nightmare in which a laptop sized spider was suffocating me. My roomate Megan cracked up because she said she had never seen anyone fly like that. Brenna played Mom and gave me a hug to calm me down. Normally I’m really nervious about getting down from the ricketty bunk bed. I don’t know how I didn’t break my neck or hurt my laptop. After a bit I was able to go back to bed but then at 2:00 AM I gave a repeat performance. Exhausted I decided that instead of a hammock or my bunk bed I would just crash on the couch in the common room with the lights on. Yes I know sleeping with the lights on is not very sustainable.

My interpretation of my dream is that I shouldn’t have yummy, shade-grown organic coffee before bed. A second thought is that I need to either come to terms with the fact that I’m not going to get good grades unless I put in the work and that if I put in the work I will have less free time to travel around Costa Rica. The key to getting the most out of my time here will be finding a balance. Like approaching strangers in Spanish, this is a difficult but feasible goal.

A new way to study: Brenna plays guitar and Starbuck reads aloud about Biotechnology to her beat.

Brenna found another buggy buddy!